Aircraft carrier strategy could make America suffer on the future battlefield
The US risks failure by focusing on expensive old weapons, while China is determined to pursue future technology.
Under the current 30-year shipbuilding plan, the US will continue to build and launch aircraft carriers until 2048. Experts say the strategy of pursuing this expensive weapon could put the US at a disadvantage in the era of high-tech warfare, especially in the face of the rise of China, according toWashington Post.
The Aspen Strategy Group, a group of current and former top US national security advisers, believes that future combat systems will revolve around artificial intelligence (AI), cyber weapons and robots that can operate on land, sea and air. Meanwhile, the US military may still have to rely on aircraft carriers, bombers, fighters and submarines that have been around for decades.
"The United States has a small number of expensive, human-operated, hard-to-replace, and outdated weapons that are being gradually surpassed by modern technology," said Christian Brose, a member of the US Senate Armed Services Committee. He said the Pentagon needs to add more automated, unmanned, cheap, and easily replaceable systems that can survive in the new electronic battlefield and overcome any potential adversary.
"We are not short of money, but we will lose the war if we maintain this situation. Adversaries are using modern technology to neutralize America's military advantage. The situation is increasingly alarming," Brose commented.
Investment resources for future military technology have been repeatedly cut by the US in defense budget proposals. In its proposed $74 billion defense budget for fiscal year 2019, the PentagonOnly 0.006% is spent on science and technology.
Even when the Department of Defense wants to promote technological innovation, it faces many obstacles. Former Secretary of Defense Ashton B. Carter established the Defense Innovation Experimental Unit (DIUx) under the Obama administration. The program once received much support, but has stalled under President Donald Trump due to a lack of budget and administrative support.
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The USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier during a test in mid-2017. Photo:USNI. |
Experts say the biggest technological challenge facing the US today is artificial intelligence. In just a few years, AI has surpassed humans in some areas, in addition to better recognizing voices and objects. This technology is expected to be integrated into combat weapons in the near future.
China appears determined to gain an AI edge in future conflicts. Chinese companies have won a series of AI object-detection competitions over the past two years. While Washington has focused on building aircraft carriers and bombers, Beijing has focused on developing low-cost technological solutions that can neutralize expensive enemy hardware.
China recently announced that it is testing unmanned surface ships and submarines equipped with artificial intelligence that can make combat decisions at sea and even launch suicide attacks on enemy aircraft carriers. Although there are doubts about the feasibility of this technology, it is an alarming signal that Beijing is sending to Washington.
The vulnerability of the US in information warfare also worries experts at the Aspen Strategy Group. The US has a Cyber Command but has never conducted a large-scale cyber campaign against a worthy adversary.
"With the world's largest population and an economy that is expected to overtake the US as the world's largest, China is an extremely dangerous rival in the future. Washington needs to modernize its military now to face the big problems ahead," Aspen experts recommended.